Sinn Fein ‘ignored role of 3,000 deaths in damaging community relations’
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Sinn Fein was accused of “ignoring” the role 3,000 Troubles deaths had in damaging community relations in Northern Ireland in a memo sent to a direct rule minister in 2003. Declassified files show the note to former MP John Spellar also said the republican party had ignored the “visceral component of sectarianism” in responding to a new government good relations strategy.
Mr Spellar, then a Northern Ireland Office minister, had launched a consultation on the “A Shared Future” document, an attempt to address community divisions, segregation and sectarianism in the region at a time when the devolved powersharing institutions were suspended.
A file at the Public Record Office in Belfast shows that OFMDFM official Chris Stewart wrote to the minister in July about a response to the document from Sinn Fein representative Bairbre de Brun. Mr Stewart told Mr Spellar that Ms de Brun’s letter had been critical of the document and was clearly intended to “mark your card”.
He said among a number of points raised by de Brun was that “the promotion of equality is the key to improving community relations”. His memo adds: “Sinn Fein is clearly seeking to position or align the issue of community relations within its equality and human rights agenda.
“This general Sinn Fein position has resulted in a simplistic analysis of community relations, which is flawed in its description of the causes and necessary policy response. “There is of course, no doubt that a lack of equality has been a contributing factor to poor community relations.
